| 705C |
Schott, Gaspar.
(1608-1666) P. Gasparis Schotti Regis-Curiani, E Societate Jesu. Olim
in Panormitano Siciliæ, nunc in Herbipolitano Franconiæ
ejusdem Societatis Iesu Gymnasio Matheseos Professoris Cursus Mathematicus,
Sive Absoluta Omnium Mathematicarum Disciplinarum. Encyclopædia,
In Libros XXVIII. digesta, Eoque Ordine disposita, ut quivis, vel
mediocri præditus ingenio, totam Mathesin à primis fundamentis
proprio Marte addiscere possit. Opus desideratum diu, promissum à
multis, à non paucis tentatum, à nullo numeris omnibus
absolutum. Accesserunt in fine Theoreses Mechanicæ Novæ
Additis Indicibus locupletissimis Cum Privilegio Sacræ Cæsareæ
Majestatis.
Bamberg: sumpt. Joh. Martini Schönwetteri,
Bibliopolæ Francofurtensis, 1677.
SOLD
Folio, 13.4 x 7.9 in. Third edition. ):(6, )()(6, A-M6, N8, O-Z6,
Aa-Zz6, Aaa-Hhh6, Iii4, a-d6, e4. This work contains an added engraved
title page, forty full-paged engravings, and two large folding engravings.
The text illustrations are too numerous to count. This is a lovely
copy of a book often browned and stained. It is bound in full contemporary
blind stamped alum-tawed pigskin over wooden boards. The clasps are
present, and the pigskin has that firm white quality, signalling that
it has not been subject to damp, excessive wear, or well-intentioned
but misguided attempts to clean or oil the binding.
“Gaspar Schott, German physicist, born 5 February, 1608, at Konigshofen;
died 12 or 22 May, 1666, at Augsburg. He entered the Society of Jesus
20 October, 1627, and on account of the disturbed political condition
of Germany was sent to Sicily to complete his studies. While there
he taught moral theology and mathematics in the college of his order
at Palermo. He also studied for a time at Rome under the well known
Athanasius Kircher. He finally returned to his native land after an
absence of some thirty years, and spent the remainder of his life
at Augsburg engaged in the teaching of science and in literary work.
Both as professor and as author he did much to awaken an interest
in scientific studies in Germany. He was a laborious student and was
considered one of the most learned men of his time, while his simple
life and deep piety made him an object of veneration to the Protestants
as well as to the Catholics of Augsburg. Schott also carried on an
extensive correspondence with the leading scientific men of his time,
notably with Otto von Guericke, the inventor of the air-pump, of whom
he was an ardent admirer. He was the author of a number of works on
mathematics, physics, and magic. They are a mine of curious facts
and observations and were formerly much read. His most interesting
work is the Magia Universalis Naturae et Artis, 4 vols., Wurzburg,
1657-1659, which contains a collection of mathematical problems and
large number of physical experiments, notably in optics and acoustics.
His Mechanicahydraulica-pneumatica (Wurzburg, 1657) contains the first
description of von Guericke’s air pump. He also published Pantometricum
Kircherianum (Wurzburg, 1660); Physica curiosa (Wurzburg, 1662), a
supplement to the Magia universalis; Anatomia physico-hydrostatica
fontium et fluminum (Wurzburg, 1663), and a Cursus mathematicus which
passed through several editions. He also edited the Itinerarium exacticum
of Kircher and the Amussis Ferdinandea of Curtz.” (CE)
Sommervogel VII, 907 #6.
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| 724C |
Sprat, Thomas. (1635-1713)
The History Of The Royal-Society Of London, For the Improving of Natural
Knowledge. By Tho. Sprat. D.D. Lord Bishop of Rochester.
London: Printed for Rob. scot, 1702.
$2,000
Quarto, 6.25 x 8 in. Second edition. A-B4, A-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Iii4.
The engraved frontispiece of the arms of the Royal Society is bound
opposite the title. Two engraved plates are bound in the text, and
Hollar’s engraving is lacking, as usual.
“The […] more official champion of the virtuosi was Thomas
Sprat, like several of the early scientists a Wadham man, whose History
of the Royal Society (delayed by the Plague and the Great Fire) appeared
in 1667. Sprat’s book, with a prefatory Ode to the Royal Society
by Cowley, is in three parts; it opens with a review of learning up
to his own day, and passes on to an account of the origin and development
of the Society; and ends with a reasoned defense of its activities,
in which Sprat sets out to prove that, ‘the increase of Experiments
will be so far from hurting, that it will be many waies advantageous,
above other Studies, to the wonted Courses of Education; to the Principles
and instruction of the minds of Men in general; to the Christian Religion,
to the church of England; to all Manual Trades; to Physic; to the
Nobility and Gentry; and the Universal Interest of the whole Kingdom.’
In his desire to convince the universities and the Church that their
vested interests are not in danger, Sprat is a good deal more tactful
and conciliatory than Glanvill; he writes like a public relations
officer, conscious that he has a good case but not seeking to press
it too far. […] Sprat’s argument throughout is calm, methodical,
confident, and reassuring, and he writes with a balanced ease and
a resounding reasonableness which still impressed Dr. Johnson a hundred
years later—as well it might, for Sprat’s prose is often
remarkably Johnsonian.” (Sutherland)
“Cowley, in his ode to the Royal Society, praised Sprat’s
work, and Dr. Johnson declared it ‘one of the few books which
selection of sentiment and elegance of diction have been able to preserve,
though written upon a subject flux and transitory.’ Written in
excellent English, it impresses even modern readers with its ‘bold
and liberal spirit’ of observation.” (DNB)
It is also the most important original source of material on the early
activities of the Royal Society.
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| 953c |
Sydenham, Thomas.
(1624-1689) The compleat method of curing almost all diseases to which
is added, An exact description of their several symptoms. Written
in Latin, by Dr. Thomas Sydenham, and now faithfully Englished.
London: Printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor, near Stationers-hall,
1694.
SOLD
Octavo, 3.2 x 5.45 in. First English edition. A-K6, þ7. This book
has been rebound in calfskin with gilded lettering on the spine. The
leaves are in good condition. There are six pages of medical notes
in a contemporary hand in the back of the book and notes on a few
of the printed leaves as well.
Thomas Sydenham was an English physician. Although he “was a
highly successful practitioner and saw, besides foreign reprints,
more than one new edition of his various tractates called for in his
lifetime, his fame as the father of English medicine, or the English
Hippocrates, was decidedly posthumous. For a long time he was held
in vague esteem for the success of his cooling (or rather expectant)
treatment of small pox, for his laudanum (or the fist form of tincture
opium), and for his advocacy of the use of Peruvian bark in quartan
agues. There were, however, those among his contemporaries who understood
something of Sydenham’s importance in larger matters than details
of treatment and pharmacy, chief among them being the talented Richard
Morton.
Among other things Sydenham is credited with the first diagnosis of
scarlatina and with the modern definition of chorea. After small-pox,
the diseases to which he refers the most are hysteria and gout, his
description of the latter (from the symptoms in his own person) being
one of the classical pieces of medical writing.” (EB vol. 26)
See Eimas 549-550; Wing S6307.
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| 954c |
Sydenham, Thomas.
(1624-1689) The Whole Works of that Excellent Practical Physician
Dr. Thomas Sydenham. Wherein Not only the History and Cures of Acute
Diseases are treated of, after a New and Accurate Method; But also
the Shortest and Safest Way of Curing most Chronical Diseases. Translated
from the Original Latin, by John Pechy, M.D. of the College of Physicians
in London.
London: Printed for Richard Wellington, at the Lute, and Edward Castle,
at the Angel, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1696.
$3,500
Octavo, 4.5 x 7.5 in. First English edition. A4, a8, B-Q8, R4, Aa-Pp8.
This book has been rebacked in sheepskin with gilted lettering on
the spine. There are new endpapers. The leaves overall are very clean
with some minor staining. The title page has some notes inked in a
contemporary hand.
This book does not actually contain a translation of all of Sydenham’s
writings. Rather, it is a translation of his Methodus curandi febres.
A significant work on epidemiology, it describes various plagues that
occurred during his lifetime.
See Eimas 549-550; Wing S6305.
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| 948c |
Venette, Nicolai.
(1602-1698) Nicolai Venette Med. Doct. Professoris und Decani des
Collegii zu Rochelle Von Erzeugung der Menschen mit Chur-Furstl.
Leipzig: ben Thomas Fritsch, 1698.
SOLD
Octavo, 3.8 x 6.1 in. First German edition 1688. þ, a7, b-d8, A-Z8,
Aa-Pp8.
There are an engraved frontisportrait of the author and twelve diagrams
of male and female genitalia and reproductive organs throughout. This
book is bound in eighteenth century paste paper over paper boards.
The binding is somewhat loose but still attached. The leaves have
some typical browning but are in overall good condition. The title
page is printed in black and red.
Venette, a French surgeon, was fascinated by sexual organs, and the
act of intercourse. Rather than discuss the procreative aspects of
copulation, however, he was more interested in the recreation and
pleasure derived from it. He believed that the size of both the male
penis and the female clitoris played an important role in the enjoyment
of sex. In his most famous book on the subject, Tableau de l'Amour
Conjugale, Venette wrote "Penises that are too long or fat are
not the best either for procreation or recreation. They irritate women
and signify nothing special." He posed that a woman who behaved
lasciviously most often had an oversized clitoris.
Venette also gives advice to men and women regarding ailments affecting
the sexual organs. He maintains that: "The privy parts of a Woman...
are the cause of most of our Sorrows, as well as our Pleasures; and
I dare say, that all Disorders, that ever happen’d in the World...
spring from this same source".
Krivatsy 12257; See Hayn Bibl. 143.
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| 914C |
Verstegan, Richard
[a.k.a. Richard Rowlands]. (1550-1640) A Restitvtion of Decayed Intelligence:
In antiquities. Concerning the most noble and renovvmed English nation.
By the studie and trauaile of R.V. Dedicated vnto the Kings most excellent
Maiestie. Nationum Origo.
Antwerp: Printed by Robert Bruney, 1605.
SOLD
Quarto, 4.5 x 6.75 in. First edition. +4, ++4, +++4, A-Z4, Aa-Xx4.
Ten lovely engravings, cut after Verstegan’s own drawings are
printed in the text. Another engraving is printed on the title, depicting
the tower of Babel, and Verstegan’s engraved coat of arms is
printed before the table at the end, for a total of twelve text engravings.
This copy is in good condition internally; it has some browning and
staining but nothing that impairs legibility. It is bound in nineteenth
century sheepskin with gilded emblems and title on the spine. There
is a tear along the back spine. The pastedowns are marbled.
This is a fascinating work on the history of the English people. Verstegan
contends that English people have descended from ancient Germans or,
more rightly, Saxons. He describes the culture of the ancient Saxons,
and their arrival in Britain from Germany. The arrival of the Danes
and Normans is also treated, but their contributions to English culture
are viewed as minor in comparison with the Saxon influence.
The etymological chapters are of particular interest. Verstegan believes
in the great antiquity of the English language, “the propriety,
worthinesse, and amplitude of our ancient English tongue” and
offers definitions of many ancient Saxon words. He also includes a
chapter on the etymologies of Saxon proper names of men and women,
which is followed by a chapter on English surnames and their origins
(i.e. Anglo-Saxon, Danish, or Norman). A section which could easily
become a favorite is the “etymologies of our English names of
contempt,” including baud, crone, drabbe, fixen (vixen), hoor,
knave, rascal, ribald, and more. The list of words is interesting
in itself—the etymological explanations and definitions are wonderful.
STC 21361; Allison and Rogers, A Catalogue of Catholic Books in English
printed abroad and secretly in England 1558-1640, #846.
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| 944c |
Willis, Thomas. (1621-1675)
Thomæ Willis Med. Doct. Opera Omnia, Nitidius quàm unquam
hactenus edita, plurimum emendata, Indicibus rerum copiosissimis,
ac distinctione characterum exornata. Studio & Opera Gerardi Blasii,
M.D. Et in Ill. Amstelæd. Gymnasio Prof. Publ. Bibliothecarii,
&c.
Amsterdam: Henricum Wetstenium, 1682.
$3,800
Quarto, 9.3 x 7.5 in. Second Latin edition; considered the most complete
and correct edition. [þ]5 (engraved portrait of Willis, engraved title,
typographical title, letter to the reader, author’s life, table
of contents), *4, A-Y4, Z2, *2, A-P4, Q2, †2, (A)-(T)4 (T4 blank and
present), *2, A-E4, F2, *4, A4, b-z4, aa-dd4, ee1, *4, A-Z4, Aa-Pp4.
There are 37 full-paged, folding plates with the text, a full-paged
portrait of the author, and an engraved title page. This copy is bound
in full contemporary Dutch parchment with yapp edges. It is in very
good condition. The edges are speckled red.
“This edition was prepared by Gerard Blaes (Blasius) who was
the leading light in Amsterdam medical circles in the second half
of the seventeenth century, and numbered among his students Steno
and Swammerdam. He was ‘an industrious writer and editor (Lindeboom),
and this is the first scholarly and systematic edition of Willis’
works, which had appeared in more or less undigested editions since
1676.
“The term ‘neurology’ was introduced by Thomas Willis,
the celebrated physician and anatomist of the seventeenth century.
For this, but more especially for his remarkable observations correlating
the anatomy, pathology and clinical disorders of the nervous system,
he may be substantially claimed as the founder of neurology.
“Willis had as pupils men who went on to brilliant achievements.
They included Robert Hooke, the great inventive physicist and microscopist;
John Locke, the physician-philosopher; Richard Lower and Edmund King,
who performed the first blood transfusion; Thomas Millington, later
president of the Royal College of Physicians, Royal Physician and
successor to Willis in the Oxford chair; and finally Christopher Wren,
who the diarist Evelyn referred to as ‘that miracle of a youth.’
“The famous copper engraving of the base of the brain showing
the cranial nerves and the arterial circle is thus almost certainly
from a drawing by Christopher Wren. […] There is no question
that Willis, in addition to describing the anatomy of the circle,
clearly recognized its functional significance. He reports how he
had ‘squirted oftentimes into either artery of the carotides,
a liquor dyed with ink,’ so that ‘the vessels creeping into
every corner and secret place of the Brain and the Cerebel,’
were ‘imbued with the same color.’ Moreover, he records
the clinical histories of two patients where this anatomical arrangement,
he argues, had prevented apoplexy. He noted, for example, one patient
who had no evidence of apoplexy during life ‘in which the Right
Arteries, both the Carotid and Vertebral, within the Skull, were become
bony and impervious, and did shut forth the blood from that side.’
He reasoned in these cases that the remaining large vessels running
to the arterial circle at the base of the brain, by way of their ‘mutual
conjoinings’ were able to ‘supply or fill the channels and
passages of all the rest.’ This sequence—anatomical description,
clinical reporting, and pathological observation—exemplifies
the best of Willis’ writing and indicates the originality and
insight that he brought to medical problems. From reading such examples,
there can be little doubt of the active role which Willis himself
played in such investigations.” (Dr. William Feindel, The Canadian
Medical Association Journal, Aug. 11, 1962, Vol. 87, pp. 289-296)
“Willis pointed out that the difficulty in breathing encountered
in asthma was due to a constriction of the bronchioles. He gave the
first detailed descriptions of cardiospasm, myasthenia gravis and
hyperacousia. He was also the first to detect the sweetish taste of
the urine of the diabetic, thus allowing the distinction to be made
between diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus.
“In the course of his work Willis made a number of contributions
to psychiatry proper. First, he convincingly vindicated the uterus
and the humors from causing hysteria, which incidentally he likened
to hypochonriasis in men. Instead he placed its pathology squarely
in ‘the Brain and Nervous Stock.’ […] Secondly, Willis
gave one of the most extensive accounts of the whole field of mental
illness which had appeared up to that time. He attributed ‘melancholy’
or affective psychosis to ‘passions of the heart;’ and ‘madness’
or psychosis phrenia, to ‘vice or fault of the Brain.’ He
recognized the difference between the symptoms of gross brain disease
and those of mental illness in which he accounted for the absence
of pathological findings by postulating a disturbance of the brain
and nerves in terms of disordered ‘Animal Spirits.’ For
this reason he is often credited with having first equated mind disease
with brain disease. […] Thirdly, Willis described patients with
dementia in association with paralysis and tremor with fatal termination,
which possibly represent the first cases of general paralysis of the
insane, a disease not established as a clinico-pathological entity
until the third decade of the nineteenth century.” (Hunter &
MacAlpine)
Krivatsy 13002; Parkinson & Lumb 2602;
Russell 880; Hunter & MacAlpine, p. 187. Not in Osler, Waller,
etc; see Eimas, Heirs of Hippocrates, 542.
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| 592C |
Worlidge, John. (fl.
1669-1698) Systema Agriculturæ; The Mystery of Husbandry Discovered.
Treating of the several New an most Advantagious Ways Of Tilling,
Planting, Sowing, Manuring, Ordering, Improving Of all sorts of Gardens,
Orchards, } {Meadows, Pastures,} {Corn-Lands, Woods & Coppices.
As also of Fruits, Corn, Grain, Pulse, New-Hays, Cattle, Fowl, Beasts,
Bees, Silk-Worms, Fish, &c. With an Account of the several Instruments
and Engines used in this Profession. To which is added Kalendarium
Rusticum: Or, The Husbandmans Monthly Directions. Also The Prognosticks
of Dearth, Scarcity, Plenty, Sickness, Heat Cold, Frost, Snow, Winds,
Rain, Hail, Thunder, &c. And Dictionarium Rusticum: Or, The Interpretation
of Rustick Terms. The whole Work being of great Use and Advantage
to all that delight in that most Noble Practise. The Fourth Edition
carefully Corrected and Amended, with one whole Section added, and
many large and useful Additions throughout the whole Work. By J.W.
Gent.
London: Printed for Tho. Dring, at the Harrow at the corner of Chancery-lane
in Fleetstreet, 1687.
SOLD
Folio, 12.625 x 7.875 in. Fourth edition. [þ]4, A2, a-b2, *4, B-Z4,
Aa-Ss4, Tt2. This work has an added engraved title, three text engravings,
and one full-paged engraving. This work is in good condition internally.
The binding has been reattached.
“John Worlidge, agricultural writer, who resided at Petersfield,
Hampshire, is of interest in the history of agricultural literature
as the compiler of the first systematic treatise on husbandry on a
large and comprehensive scale. He was a correspondent of John Houghton,
who gives in his ‘Letters’ two contributions by ‘the
ingenious Mr. John Worlidge of Petersfield in Hampshire,’ on
‘a great improvement of land by parsley,’ and on ‘improving
and fyning of Syder.’ Worlidge’s Systema Agriculturæ
first published in 1669, went through a number of editions. He appears
to have carefully studied the writings of his predecessors, Fitzherbert,
Sir Richard Weston, Robert Child, Walter Blith, Gabriel Platts, Sir
Hugh Plat, and the anonymous writers whose works were published by
Samuel Hartlib. Worlidge’s system of husbandry may be regarded
as gathering into a focus the scattered information published during
the period of the Commonwealth.” (DNB)
Worlidge treats every topic imaginable pertaining to agriculture.
He covers the maintenance, planting, and care of meadows, hedges,
fields of grain, the propagation of trees by seed and graft, trees
for lumber, ornamental trees, fruit trees, how to remove unwanted
or diseased trees. He also describes the making and bottling of cider,
cherry wine, plum wine, raspberry wine, currant wine, and wort wine.
He discusses hops, the best sort of land on which to grow them, preparing
the ground, the time of planting, dressing, tying, and watering, when
to gather hops, how to dry and bag them, and finally, laying up the
poles on which the hops grew, and dunging the soil for the next season.
Following this the growing of licorice and saffron are treated. Worlidge
then moves on to beans, peas, melons, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage,
lettuce, cauliflower, beets, anise, carrots, turnips, parsnips, radishes,
potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, onions, garlic, leeks, and tobacco.
The beasts, fowls and insects usually kept for the advantage and use
of the husbandman are then covered: horses, asses, mules, cows and
oxen, sheep, swine, goats, dogs, rabbits, geese, ducks, turkeys, pigeons,
swans, peacocks, and pheasants. A long section on bees is followed
by some pages on raising silk worms. Worlidge’s next treats all
of the “external injuries, inconveniences, enemies and diseases”
affecting the husbandman from the heavens or air, from the water and
earth, from several beasts, from fowls, from insects (and creeping
things offending: frogs, toads, snails, worms, gnats, flies, wasps,
hornets, caterpillars, earwigs, lice, ants, snakes and adders), from
diseases, and finally from thieves and ill neighbors.
The next chapter is all about ploughs, other farm implements, and
related topics such as how to situate the farm house, and the securest
and cheapest way of building a house, with a few pages discussing
different building materials. Worlidge then moves on to fishing and
fowling, with instruction on forming a draw-net for catching birds,
details on choosing a gun powder, and how to make shot. He describes
making “an artificial stalking horse,” artificial trees,
and decoy ponds, all in an effort to sneak up on ducks and other water
fowl. Worlidge has twenty or more ways to take land birds sorted out
in detail over the next six pages. He fishes with nets and fish-pots,
he angles for salmon, trout, pike, perch, carp, tench, dace, roach,
bream, eels, barbel, grayling, umber, chevin, and chub.
The husbandman’s calendar follows, with suggestions for tasks
in each month of the year. The second to the last chapter is all about
the art of predicting the future of the farm. Will we have sickness,
scarcity, frost, snow, plenty, heat, or God knows what? Worlidge includes
a list of signs and observations that can be taken from the elements,
animals, birds, insects and reptiles to aid in the prediction of future
farm conditions of every kind. The final chapter is Worlidge’s
Dictionarium Rusticum; “or, the Interpretations and Significations
of Several Rustick Terms Used in several Places of England: And also
the Names of several Instruments and Materials Used in this Mystery
of Agriculture; And other Intricate Expressions dispersed in our Rural
Authors.”
Wing W-3601; TC II, 226.
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